Friday, March 19, 2010

My Life, My Time, before, during, and after Eco-Bio

Before the trip

I was told there would be a camping trip for four days and 3 nights held by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). I didn't get most of the details, but someone mentioned it would be in Ayer Hitam. I wondered, "Ayer Hitam Johor ke ?"

Then, Jibrail came to my class, politely asking the teacher's permission for me to leave to meet Puan Zawakhir, the Guru Penolong Kanan of Curiculum, briefing us of how we should behave and shows the other elite cluster schools of how the students in King George V (KGV) are. Then, Jibrail started to panic. Pressured from Puan Zawakhir's speech, as he is the leader elected not formally to for our school :P. I sighed in relief, as knowing that there would be two teacher accompanying us, Cikgu Hazlan the hype/sporting teacher, and also Cikgu Khadijah, the new, yet kind and caring teacher.

Its been a long time since I last went to a camping trip, to be specific, it's like, 6 years ? I couldn't recall exactly. So, when packing, I went like "Allah ! Apa aku nak pack ni ??!!!" Almost panicking, I remembered Jibrail. He's used to go to camping, so I contacted him. I've bombarded him with tons of questions regarding what to pack, either thru the phone, Facebook (FB), or Yahoo! Messenger(YM). Thank God he was there for me, if not, I could have used up the same clothes again and again.

Even with Jibrail's advice and guide, I packed most of my attires at the last minute. My parents and the other siblings went to Kota Bharu, Kelantan for my aunt's wedding, so I was alone at home for 3 days. Good thing that there's my cousin Kak Syida that helped me to go to school, if not, I would've missed the whole trip.

During the trip to UPM, a lot of funny moments happened, especially during our breakfast at one of the Rest & Relax (RNR) stations. Cikgu Hazlan asked Jibrail to buy a cup of "tongkat ali" for Cikgu, but Puan Zawakhir mistaken that Jibrail was going to drink the tongkat ali, instead of Cikgu Hazlan. Haha, up until then, the "tongkat ali" incident was mentioned thru most of the time during camping :P

During the camping

We were the first school to arrive. Hehe .. and we were greeted warmly by the Faculty of Forestry's staff. Then, the other schools arrived. I had a first impression that they would be like, as typical elite school students with rich parents and families, they ought to be snobbish. Well, it was proven wrong.

During the first briefing, they were cool and friendly. After our briefing about UPM and the Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve, we were divided into groups of three, comprising with Afiq, Fatimah, and me from KGV and 8 others from those three other schools, Sekolah Sri Puteri Cyberjaya, Sekolah Menengah Aminuddin Baki, Kuala Lumpur, Sekolah Menengah Convent Bukit Nanas, Kuala Lumpur. We were then sent out for ice-breaking event, and from that moment, Terra QuaDiez was bornt. Terra means the earth in Greek, resembling the program's objectives of nurturing and teaching us regarding the forest, Qua, short form for quartro, number 4 in Latin, meaning 4 facilitators that would guide Terra QuaDiez along the way which consist of Abang Khairul, Kak Jalilah, Kak Laili, dan Abang Zul, and Diez means 10, although our members were in total of 11, which is Once in latin, we decided we would best go for Diez =).

We were given chalets to stay. Boys, mostly from our school and one more, Naquib, from Aminuddin Baki, the abang2 facee, stayed at Rumah Palas, name taken from Pokok Palas, as well as other chalets, that is Rumah Kelubi, and Rumah Bertam ( thanks Fini =D ).

Food is served almost every 3-4 hours intervals during the camp. Dah la sedap, tambah2 lagi :P.. naik 3 kilo pula !! haha.. The first day, at night, we have an activity where each of the students, facilitators (facee) and teachers to show off our unique trademarks. Mine was "Hobin Jang Hobin!", the Negeri Sembilan's football team's trademark. I don't know why exactly I picked it, as it was a random ones. But the most memorable trademark was a boy from SMK Aminuddin Baki, Naquib's "saya masih single" We laughed out loud, as it was accompanied with a funny and sly tone. That still lingers in my mind and I couldn't stop laughing every time I remembered that :P

For the second day, in morning, we were asked to gather at the Dewan Serbaguna, around 5 minutes walk from our chalet. For our first activity, we were told to picked up three various leaves, each differs from the others and asked to draw and listed out the characteristics of the leaves. Then, for the next activities, we were separated by our given groups, Evo Rangers, Terra QuaDiez, and Bugs Bunny, to walk around the nearby forest to identify various types of plants, leaves, and woods. It was a useful information, as before that, we would all look at the leaves, and say " Semua nampak sama je..", but after that, we could recognize a slight difference between leaves of different trees.

During the afternoon, in our own groups, we went deeper in the forest, where we were tasked by the usual students of the faculties did, to profile and mapping the given plot about the locations, diameters, types, etc etc of trees. For our standard, we got a 10 x 10 plot. We split works, Tara for profiling, Timah, Afiq and me for mapping and the rest did the calculations, and others while our facees guided us throughout the whole process. It was fun, as Timah and Afiq continuously arguing, where Afiq would go for a round-up number of the distance of trees, example 6.5, 7.0, and 3.5, and Timah would be more accurate, example 6.8, 7.2, and 3.7. This sparked out arguments, which I found it funny as I was observing them from down the slope. Moreover, those two also love doing the job, when I said finish, they told me "Zul, lagi satu pokok, lagi satu pokok !"

After that, we went on for the next activity, where we were asked to create a unique and useful handcraft from the given bamboos and I think some bertam trunks and leaves. We managed to build a mini camp with various purposes, and readied it for our oncoming activity of promoting it.

Third day, we visiting different faculties, including the Faculty of Agriculture and Faculty of Engineering. The brief from the Professor at the Faculty of Engineering was a blast, as the Professor there is hip, cool-headed guy despite the graying, or I say, white hair indicating his old age. And along the way, we got goody bags ! and nice treats (again, even with roti telur and karipap sardin, I'm getting fatter !) ! ;=P When the trip to faculties for that day finished, we were going for our buses, but suddenly, the common incident of "he" appearing. My sight was spinning LITERALLY, and my legs were partially numb. I hasten my steps towards the bus, and when we reached our chalet, the feeling gradually fading, and sitting on my bed. It was still a bit blurry, and a friend of mine, I couldn't recognized who, called out the facees for help. Tension and worries arose. I could not speak or response, so I could just nod and such. People are worried and curious of what happening to me, but it was rather embarrassing to tell. Sometimes, I would like to talk about it, but words just won't come out from my mouth.

At that night, we're on for promoting our handcraft. It was fun ! Naquib managed to pull it off, earning him the credit of several positive reviews towards our humble yet useful product :P.. useful la sangat :D.. then, we're on to our persembahan.. The first group did a tv reporting session, where Jibrail and Ricky's "ghayness" acts earned bursts of laughter from all of us. The third group did performed second, making a quiz where their members react on the facee's memorable moments, and asked us which facee did the mentioned acts. I managed to get most of it :P with the help from my group members, of course. Then, we were up next, and performed a small acting scene.. it was horrible ! People were almost going to die out of boredom,so we quit the acts, and Naquib suggested that all of us did the train dancing.. It started slowly, but eventually all joined us, and Naquib managed to pull it off for the second time.

Next was the teacher's time to perform. Cikgu Hazlan representing the whole teachers from other schools, mendeklamasikan sajak, where the choice of words and how Cikgu Hazlan mendeklamasikan the sajak made me laugh so hard my stomach aches. Then, Abang Zuhir and Zulfadli came in, saying that their money and belonging was stolen. I was crushed down. People closed to me knew that I took a trait from my mother, where when situation gets bad, all of my mood to have fun gone. I was wondering "Astaghfirullah! Siapa lah yang buat tuh ??!!!!" I almost cried. Yala, abang2 and kakak2 ni dah baik dengan kita, bantu kita. I respected all of them. I felt like they are my older brothers and sisters which I never had, since I am the eldest of my siblings. Sometimes, I want to feel how it's like to have someone older than me to help me out thru life. And once I got that feeling in this camping trip, some shit like this happened. I worried sick, and wondering what would they feel after this. But suddenly, one of them came in, bringing cake and candles lighted. I realized it was a gimmick, as that day was Afiq's birthday. Others were surprised with joy, but me, my mood had gone. While other peoples celebrating and singing, I just stand there, dumbfounded. Then I headed towards my chalet to relax my mind for couple of minutes.

After having some midnight snacks, I went out of my chalet, and sat at the pathway, watching and admiring the works of God, the beautiful nature where it couldn't be found in where I'm living currently. Took pictures, and abang Amir approached me, engaging conversations about his life and background, and so did I. I wanted to tell him of part of my life, parts which made my life so complicated, yet to no avail. There are urges to speak, but the words just won't come out. I don't know. But it's common for me, and maybe that's why I'm not that talkative in school. I would prefer typing than saying because of that particular reason.

On the fourth and final day, we visited the Faculty of Veterinary and the Faculty of Science. Nothing interesting, as I have less interest in those two subjects. Then it came to my most dreaded moments during the camp, the official closing event, meaning that the program would come to an end soon, but before that, all of us took the free time to note down all of our emails and telephone numbers, including the facee's so that we could contact each others in the future. During the closing event, bla bla bla, it's officially closed.

I was going home with my mother. After saying goodbye to all of my new found friends for the time, I sat around the area of the faculty. Before I knew it, tears are flowing from my eyes thru my cheeks. I watch around, as it would be my last time around here. The trees, the fresh airs..

Then my mother arrived, I said my goodbyes to Abang Amir, Abang Sham, Abang Farhan and others before heading home.

After Eco-Bio

During the ride towards home, I remembered our moments during the camping. Everything of it lingered in my mind. At night, before I sleep, I cried again, wishing that it would not end this soon, but like Abang Amir once said to me, "setiap pertemuan ada perpisahan". I understand, and I'm hoping to cope with the "rindu-ness".

Thanks

Special thanks to :

Abang Amir AffanFor helping me out when I'm not well, kerana sudi berbual dengan saya, and for taking care of me, and all of us during the camping, and for being like an elder brother I never had... Thanks a lot. I will heed the advices given. Once again, thank you very much.

All of this written based on truly what happened but not chronologically. I may have missed out someone, an event/s or so, and I apologize. And note, there aren't any exaggerations written here. All based on true story and honestly written.

3 comments:

I love to read this as it showed that you had a grand time there....try to look up for other similar trips, you may enjoy them too...and yes what one of your facee said is very true...setiap pertemuan ada perpisahan even u and i as mum and son....so always be positive, dont keep thing to yourself too much...u have so many ppl love u especially me....do share your concern, your sadness and happiness...